Late Pleistocene

The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently defined as the time between c. 129,000 and c. 11,700 years ago. The late Pleistocene equates to the proposed Tarantian Age of the geologic time scale, preceded by the officially ratified Chibanian (commonly known as the Middle Pleistocene).^[1] The beginning of the Late Pleistocene is the transition between the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and the beginning of the Last Interglacial around 130,000 years ago (corresponding with the beginning of Marine Isotope Stage 5).^[5] The Late Pleistocene ends with the termination of the Younger Dryas, some 11,700 years ago when the Holocene Epoch began.^[2]

The term Upper Pleistocene is currently in use as a provisional or "quasi-formal" designation by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). Although the three oldest ages of the Pleistocene (the Gelasian, the Calabrian and the Chibanian) have been officially defined, the late Pleistocene has yet to be formally defined.^[6]

Following the brief Last Interglacial warm period (~130-115,000 years ago), where temperatures were comparable to or warmer than the Holocene, the Late Pleistocene was dominated by the cool Last Glacial Period, with temperatures graduate lowering throughout the period, reaching their lowest during the Last Glacial Maximum around 26-20,000 years ago.

Most of the world's large (megafaunal) animals became extinct during the Late Pleistocene as part of the Late Pleistocene extinctions, a trend that continued into the Holocene. In palaeoanthropology, the late Pleistocene contains the Upper Palaeolithic stage of human development, including the early human migrations of modern humans outside of Africa, and the extinction of all archaic human species.